FIG. 1 depicts a side view of a conventional magnetic read transducer 10 used in reading a media (not shown). The conventional read transducer 10 includes conventional shields 12 and 30 and read sensor 18. The conventional shields 12 and 30 are typically formed of a soft magnetic material, such as NiFe. On the conventional shield 12 is a nonmagnetic layer 14 including materials such as Ta or Cu. This conventional nonmagnetic layer 14 typically is between fifteen and fifty Angstroms in thickness. On the conventional nonmagnetic layer 14 is a conventional seed layer 16. The conventional seed layer 16 typically includes materials such as Ru, NiFeCr, NiFe, or CoFe. The conventional sensor includes a conventional AFM layer 20, a conventional pinned layer 22, a conventional barrier or spacer layer 24, and a conventional free layer 26. Also shown is a conventional capping layer 28 that resides between the conventional free layer 28 and the conventional second shield 30. The conventional AFM layer 20 is typically seventy to eighty Angstroms, or more, in thickness and is used to pin, or fix the direction of, the magnetization of the conventional pinned layer 22. A minimum thickness of the conventional AFM layer 20 is desired in order to provide sufficient thermal stability and to sufficiently pin the magnetization of the conventional pinned layer 22. Materials such as IrMn and PtMn may be used for the conventional AFM layer. The conventional pinned layer 22 may be a synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) layer including ferromagnetic layers that are separated by a nonmagnetic spacer layer. The conventional barrier/spacer layer 24 may be an insulating barrier layer or a conductive layer. Thus, the conventional sensor 18 may be a magnetic tunneling junction or a spin valve.
Although the conventional read transducer 10 functions, the trend in hard disk drives is toward a smaller shield-to-shield spacing. This shield-to-shield spacing is the distance, t, between the shields 12 and 30. However, improved thermal stability of the conventional sensor 18 as well as a higher magnetoresistive effect for the sensor 18 are still desired.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for reducing the shield-to-shield spacing while maintaining sufficient performance of the conventional sensor 18.